Offline Maps Added to the New Google Maps

Just yesterday Google released a new version of the Google Maps Android App that brought a new UI as well as gestures to the app. It’s a pretty big step forwards in terms of a new look and matches the new look Maps that was launched at this years Google IO back in May.

One of the biggest concerns for users who installed or upgraded to the new Maps App, was that not only was Latitiude missing, but the ability to save maps Offline was missing as well, Google addressed this last night by saying on their Lat-Long Blog :

The offline maps feature for Android is also no longer available. Instead we’ve created a new way for you to access maps offline by simply entering “OK Maps” into the search box when viewing the area you want for later. Finally, My Maps functionality is not supported in this release but will return to future versions of the app. People who want to create powerful custom maps can still do so with Maps Engine Lite on desktop.

But this does not appear to have been enough, Google has this afternoon taken to Google+ to advise that they’ve been working through the night to give an easier way to access Maps offline. To that end a new update being pushed out, will add a “Make this map area available offline” card below the search box, but if you’re liking the newly introduced ‘Ok Maps’ command, you can still use that too.

Google has also added a “Where’s Latitude?” link to the bottom of the side menu that will provide information on the future of location sharing, specifically to the Google Latitiude support page.

Apparently this update will be rolling out starting today through Google Play and yet again they are ready and waiting for feedback on this update too. Shake your phone with Google Maps open to send feedback.

Scott Plowman Senior Associate

Scott is our modding guru - he has his finger on the pulse of all things ‘moddable’, pointing us towards all the cutting edge mods hacks that are available. When he’s not gymming it up, or scanning the heck out of Nexus devices, you'll find him on the Ausdroid Podcast.

I like the clean look but I think they have reduced the amount of data you can cache. Also it’s a lot less intuitive to cache; “Go to where you want to cache then go back into the search bar to cache maps???” Would it kill them to have a “Make Offline” button show up when you hold a finger down on the map? Something like how the Camera app works please 🙂

Natalie Vincent

They’ve removed Terrain View… Bad if you’re a cyclist. How about a feature on alternatives to Google Maps?

David Anderton

Looks nicer but I would prefer practicality to pretty

Carsten Bauer

Anybody got this update via the Play Store yet? My i9305T with 4.1.2 doesn’t show any updates yet to 7.x with the “Offline maps” function, or the first 7.x yet 🙁